RED SOX NOTEBOOK: Dustin Pedroia takes a knee

BOSTON – Dustin Pedroia was out of the lineup on Thursday night as he continues to battle soreness in his surgically repaired left knee.

“We’ve got to monitor just how he reacts to some consistent play with the left knee and try to stay ahead of it as best possible,” manager John Farrell said. “We felt it was best to try to give him a day.”

Pedroia’s knee has been a problem much of the season. After undergoing arthroscopic surgery on Oct. 12, Pedroia missed three games in April when Manny Machado’s hard slide into second tweaked that knee. When Pedroia hit the disabled list for a wrist injury in late May, Farrell believed the time down could also help heal the second baseman’s knee.

The team has also been cautious with Pedroia on rainy nights, either sitting him or getting him out of the game early, as it did in Tuesday’s blowout win.

Pedroia has long shown himself capable of playing through pain, though it occasionally comes at a cost to his production. Farrell believes Pedroia’s power has taken a hit from the knee issues.

“I don’t know that he’s had a consistent base from which to hit,” said Farrell. “I know he’s tried to alter things a little differently, and the batted balls are still there. But when you don’t hit with a consistent firm base, it’s going to affect the ability to drive the baseball.”

Pedroia is still getting on base at an excellent clip. His .371 on-base percentage is tied with Xander Bogaerts for the team lead. His slugging, however, is at a career-low .368, more than 80 points down from last season. He hasn’t homered since May 7, and he has only two doubles in the 16 games he’s played since coming off the DL.

Shift work: Unlike most parks, a ball down the left-field line at Fenway isn’t necessarily a double, especially when it barely reaches the wall on a few hops. When Mookie Betts hit a line drive to left on Wednesday night, though, he was able to cruise into second.

That’s because the Twins have been aggressively shifting Betts and other Red Sox hitters like nobody else in baseball.

“First time I’ve seen that,” Betts said of an outfield alignment that had center fielder Byron Buxton shaded toward right-center and left fielder Eddie Rosario basically playing the left-center gap, even against the pull-happy Betts.

It’s all part of Minnesota’s intriguing defensive plan, which they’ve showcased at Fenway all week.

“We did feel like trying to cover the larger parts of the grass would be advantageous,” said Jeff Pickler, the Twins coach responsible for outfield positioning. “We’re not trying to get carried away in trying to prove a point. We’re trying to do the best thing for our ballclub. We looked at it pretty good before we came in here.”

Hired from the Dodgers over the winter to bring more of an analytics bend to the Twins, Pickler has been about as aggressive with his outfield positioning as anyone in baseball. It appears to be paying off. According to Baseball Info Solutions, Minnesota’s outfielders have saved about 20 runs on the season, second-most in baseball, just ahead of Boston’s 19.